


dare you to dare me to love

by maraudersourwolf



Series: thiam half birthday 2k18 [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bad Dirty Talk, Crushes, Embarrassment, Friends to Lovers, Games, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Serious, Roughhousing, Second-Hand Embarrassment, Swearing, Teasing, Weird flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 06:24:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15018614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maraudersourwolf/pseuds/maraudersourwolf
Summary: “I am bored,” Liam whines and lets his head fall from the edge if his bed.Theo tries to ignore him because that’s the only plausible action to this. And yes, he knows. He’s sitting in Liam’s wheely chair, inside Liam’s room with one of Liam’s book on his hands. Ignoring the beta should be hard.But it’s totally not.





	dare you to dare me to love

**Author's Note:**

> **THIAM WEEK | DAY 6: TOYS AND GAMES**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 'Dare or dare' is the game that started this all.  
> We play it a lot with my friends.  
> Y'know, some people get drunk, some get high.  
> We decided that destroying each other's dignity was better.
> 
>  
> 
> There's half real life experiences here.  
> At some point, this whole story went out of control.  
> So it's just a complete clusterfuck.  
> I'm very sorry.
> 
>  
> 
> Barely to non-beta'd.  
> Very very messy.  
> Very very weird.  
> Proceed with caution and enjoy!

 

 

“I am bored,” Liam whines and lets his head fall from the edge if his bed.

Theo tries to ignore him because that’s the only plausible action to this. And yes, he knows. He’s sitting in Liam’s wheely chair, inside Liam’s room with one of Liam’s book on his hands. Ignoring the beta should be hard.

But it’s totally not.

Liam is a permanent fixture in his life at this point, like a really ugly decoration that you don’t really know how it got to your life but you don’t really want to get rid of. Which makes the whole _‘oversee your existence’_ a bit easier by moments. Except Liam isn’t exactly ugly at all and he knows how he got into his life. The whole _‘you’re my responsibility’_ speech perfected to the T.

Truth is he doesn’t want to get rid of the beta either, but that’s not something he’s going to share with the class anytime soon.

“Hi bored, I’m Theo,” he drawls, gaze still fixed onto the book.

Liam groans and rolls back into bed, to avoid looking at Theo. He’s smiling to himself in that stupid way he does when he thinks Theo’s being clever or funny, but doesn’t want to acknowledge it.

It’s not thay Theo is watching him. But he totally is.

And sure as hell it’s not giving him funny feelings inside his chest. Which totally is.

“You’re terrible,” Liam grumbles.

“No, I’m Theo”

This time the reply is a well aimed cushion at his face.

 

*

 

After some time spent between cursing and wrestling around where Theo did not, in fact, cackle and even less squawk once or twice, they settle down.

Which is actually an euphemism for both of them fall into the mattress, breathing like animals and sharing kicks or punches from time to time because they can’t seem to get their hands out of each other. And not even in the funny way.

Liam crooks his head to look at Theo, making a valiant effort to not look stupidly happy and failing considerably. The same way Theo tries to not feel unexplainable happy and miserably fails too.

The chimera wants to question exactly why Liam is so happy when seconds ago Theo jabbed his elbow right on his ribs hard enough to break one, but he guesses it’s part of the defective gene of the True Alpha’s bite.

Be impossibly happy for no reason whatsoever.

Maybe it’s more like a virus and kinda contagious.

“I’m still bored”

Theo huffs and turns to look at the ceiling. Is in times like this when he feels that getting out of hell more than being a blessing was a biggest curse.

“What do you want me to do, Liam?”

Liam shrugs and Theo frown deepens in correlation.

“Let's play a game”

“The height is right but you’re missing the tricycle”

It takes Liam a moment before the comparison clicks and by that point Theo doesn’t care he’s being pushed out of the bed with all the beta’s strength.

Brett is right, everything is worth it just to see the grandma levels of indignation in Liam’s eyes.

 

*

 

After the second round of wrestling, when now it’s impossible for Liam to fake he doesn’t feel completely delighted by them both roughing each other around since his chemosignals are drowning the room, Theo caves.

Mostly because he’s kinda tired of receiving punches. Also because so much happiness is making him feel kinda dizzy.

“Okay, let’s do something”

“Really?”

The beta’s voice is so high with excitement that he expects at any given moment to see a tail pop out of nowhere and wag around like crazy. This time is Theo who shrugs, because it will take another round of Hell vacations for him to admit that the beta’s excitement turns to be a bit contagious.

“What do you want to do? Play a video game, watch a movie, torture me with history facts…”

By the way Liam’s eyes shine at the word _‘torture’_ , Theo can only assume how deeply fucked he is.

“Let’s play dare or dare!”

“Dare… or dare,” Theo repeats slowly, watching Liam nod quickly enough to give himself both whiplash and motion sickness all at once.

“Y’know, like truth or dare? But with just dares?”

Theo purses his lips and barely shakes his head. “Sounds thrilling,” he deadpans.

“Oh my god, are you for real? You never played it?”

“No, no,” Theo replies, “With the Dread Doctors? We dared each other all the time. They were my bros, my homies, y’know? When they weren’t slicing someone open, we actually had a blast of a time”

Liam blinks at him, in silence. Theo notices not only that, which is weird on its own, but also that the beta is taking too much time to process what he just said. Way too much. Enough so that when Liam finally shakes his head _a la McCall_ way, Theo is both weirded out a bit and biting down a coo because even if he tries really hard to not see a puppy doing the same exact thing but that’s the only thing he sees.

“It’s so weird to hear you say _‘homies’_ ”, Liam says and grimaces, which is completely rude.

Who is he kidding? It’s totally not. If anything, it’s amusing how easily Theo can get under his skin without really intending to.

Theo grins at him, in that one way that he knows gives Liam the chills. “It’s okay _bro_ , you don’t have to worry”

“You are creeping me out”

“What’s the matter, _homie_?”

He already lost count of how many times his nose broke under Liam’s knuckles, but neither of them felt as fulfilling and worthy as this one.

 

*

 

The third is the lucky one, they say. Theo isn’t sure if it applies to rounds of wrestling, broken noses and black eyes already healing, but since most of the things people say don’t really apply to anything more than an empty sense of hope, he pays no mind.

What he does pay mind to is the way Liam’s chemosignals impregnate every corner of the room with the sizzling warmth of happiness and how the messy mane of the beta is now draped over his shoulder, the astray locks tickling his nose. Or better said, his face leaning down to try to bury itself into Liam’s hair to take a sniff.

Just a small one. Just-- Nope, he’s not doing the sniffing thing now. Or never.

Never sounds good, actually.

“How do we play?,” Theo asks and twist to face the side of the bed where he knows Liam throws his dirty socks to die. And takes a deep breath. Because the best way to distract the strange instinct urges is to maim himself badly in the process.

“We dare each other to do things until one of us loses”

He looks at Liam, that’s not even affected in the slightest by the odor and forgets for a moment that they are talking about something less controversial than how scarily surprising Liam gets to be without trying.

Maybe the Dread Doctors should have experimented on him instead of on Hayden and Mason.

Liam clearly would have overcomed the experiments without batting an eyelid.

 

*

 

Basic rules are easy.

One, nothing that can mortally maim or endanger each other’s health. Check. It’s not like Theo is overly excited to get near any kind of hunter and even less near Deaton. The prospect of a painful experience isn’t part of his standards of enjoyable games, even when evidence points quite the opposite.

Two, nothing that would get the other arrested. Double check. He’s not keen either into getting more troubles with the law. He had seen the small jail at the sheriff station enough times to know that there’s a huge lack of privacy and that the bathrooms there get clogged rather easily.

Three, not put any humans in danger. Which, okay, he gets the point. It’s a very True Alpha Pack™ thing to say. The fact that Liam actually believes humans could get in danger with a silly game of dare and dare it’s a bit concerning, but eh. Check.

And last but not least, no sore losers.

And that. Yeah, no, that’s not going to happen. Mario Kart’s nights with Mason are proof of how intense the beta can get. Theo has seen with his own two eyes how there’s fire lighting up Liam’s features when there’s a challenge of any type and okay. Maybe the human rule wasn’t so far fetched after all.

What the winner gets? Theo doesn’t have a clue.

Liam had been ambiguous enough to change the topic the first three times Theo asked and then then completely flat out ignore him the next two.

Theo starts to believe there’s no actual prize for this kind of game, besides your soul dying a little bit more each time and the lack of dignity. It’s just plain out torture for the sake of suffering and that’s a level of fucked up he has been very firm into not exploring ever in his life. Or maybe not exactly like this.

But this is Liam, puppy boy extraordinaire.

And he is Theo, total sucker for puppy boy extraordinaire.

So he accepts.

He’s sure that whatever he just agreed to do is not okay at all, but better dead than admit it.

 

*

 

“I dare to mix every liquid in the fridge and down it in two goes”

“Don’t you mean one go?”

“No, two. Otherwise you’re not gonna taste the mixed flavours”

Theo looks at the beta and either Liam went completely mental in the couple of seconds they agreed to play this madness of a game or he missed the true evilness lying underneath the bluest puppy eyes ever. Which is offensive, since he got blamed and sent to hell for the whole corrupting and killing Scott thing, when clearly Liam had a dark side in him all along.

Just very deep and very hidden.

Liam smiles, wide and wicked, and Theo wonders if maybe he got possessed along the way and no one noticed. Wouldn’t be the first time either.

“If you’re too chicken--”

He knows it’s a childish attempt and that he’s clearly the mature one here, so he should just brush it off and laugh.

He knows.

He still caves.

 

*

 

Maybe being a chicken isn’t so bad after all.

The concoction in front of him, brownish looking and with the worst smell possible, feels like too far of a stretch for what? Winning a stupid game? He’s sure that if he made a tea out of the fossilized socks under Liam’s bed, it would taste and smell better than this.

From soda to cold tea, pickle juice, honey, that disgusting layer of dampness that covers the cream cheese, half a smoothie that have been there for more than a week, lemon juice, orange juice, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, why even does this people have BBQ sauce, milk, strawberry jam, a can of beer, a glass of wine (they are not taking the whole thing unless they want Jenna to kill them both).

Did he already say pickle juice?

Not even the Dread Doctors had achieved such disgusting levels with their potions. And they had a black one that oozed out of your body like goo.

He grimaces down at it, sitting aimlessly in the glass they decided to sacrifice. Theo expects that at any given moment, it will melt a whole down the kitchen counter, down the floor and keep going as far as to touch magma. And probably, instead of getting evaporated, it’d solidify the Earth’s core.

“Are you giving up?”

Before he can think too much into it, Theo grabs the glass and starts to quickly down it just to remember at almost the last sip that he was supposed to drink it in two goes and not just one. Pulling the glass away, he stares down at the kitchen counter just for the sake of not giving Liam the pleasure of see his face getting greener.

The crawling feeling of the viscous liquid going down his throat is impossible to ignore. Same as the horrid blend of flavours burning in his tongue. It’s impossible that he’s going out of this unscattered, not even supernatural healing can protect him from this thing melting him inside out. But even as his knuckles are turning white curled over the kitchen counter, even as his other hand is creating a splinter over the glass, he’s holding it.

Or so he thinks.

It seems impossible for him to wrap his mind around the fact that the second go is even worst. There’s globs of seasonings and the jam and the fucking pickle juice coming back to haunt his nightmares.

He retches once. Twice. The only thing that stops him from just throwing up is the maniacal laughter of Liam, filling the room and drilling his ears.

And his never ending need for vengeance.

 

*

 

“You have to to lick Corey’s feet BUT--,” he interrupts the grin of victory blooming on the beta’s face, “-- you cannot tell him the reason”

It seems like a bit disproportionate on comparison to the lame dare he got before.

It’s not.

The taste of pickle juice and his own body trying to reject the thing that crawled down to his stomach are fueling the murdering beast in him. And the only victim is going to be Liam’s ego.

“Corey? But Mason--”

There is no way he’s ever going to choose Mason for this. Oh, no. Those two do crazy shit for each other. No matter what Theo dares Liam to do to Mason, they’d leave with their foreheads up high and friendship even stronger. But with Corey? Sweet, amicable, little of a freak Corey?

Liam will not be able to look at the chameleon in the face again.

“Corey,” Theo replies solemnly with a smug smile.

This will hang over their heads for eternity.

Exactly what he wants.

 

*

 

It took them forty minutes between asking where the highschool sweethearts were and jumping into the truck to meet them. Theo would do it all over again as if one of Hell’s loops, for the sole purpose of eternally enjoy the expression of defeat in Liam’s face.

“Corey, could you take your shoe off?”

“Why?”

Liam makes an strangled noise and looks at Mason, who arches a brow at him, and then at Theo, who smiles and crosses his arms over his chest, ready to watch the show. Liam looks back at Corey, almost pleadendly, and Theo would feel sorry for him.

Except he doesn’t, not one bit.

“Because... reasons”

“Okay?”

This time is Corey who looks first at Mason, who shrugs as only answer. And then, both of them back at Theo, who smiles even wider. This is the most evil he have felt in years and he’s enjoying every juicy piece of it.

Both gazes fall back into Liam, who looks like being at the verge of bolting out of there, and Corey slowly complies. Almost painfully so. Theo is actually pretty impressed that the chameleon boy didn’t decide to question the extra little bit of craziness on the beta or the whole new level of random they are stepping into. He can see not only the hesitation on Corey’s demeanor, but also see the growing panic on Liam’s eyes.

Once Corey’s feet is out in the free, Liam doesn’t lose any more time before grabbing his ankle and yanking the limb up to his mouth.

The stripe is long and wide, probably full of slobber, flat tongue pressing right against the sole of Corey’s foot, who barely stops himself from kicking the beta in the face. There’s a symphony of disgusted groans and a very harsh gag that perfectly blends with Mason’s ew Liam, we walked all day. Theo can even see the unintentional nervous wiggling of toes over Liam’s tongue before the boy quickly lets go of Corey’s ankle and runs for his life.

Or dignity, which seems to be almost the same.

 

*

 

“Just to be clear--,” Theo says, climbing into the truck and watching Liam, who’s already there and leaning over the window, trying to stop himself from hurling, “-- I never said I dared you”

“ _I’m g_ **_OING TO KILL YOU_ ** ”

 

*

 

Liam tries really hard to drill a hole at the side of his head with a glare the whole ride back to the house.

Theo tries really hard to stop giggling the whole time.

Neither of them succeed.

 

*

 

“Dare you to spread peanut butter on your armpits and go lay down on Mrs. Avery’s front yard so her shih-tzu licks it clean”

Theo shrugs and goes straight from the front door to the fridge, taking the jar of peanut butter and readying himself for do not only another disgusting dare but also a really lame one, when Liam clears his throat from the kitchen door.

He’s leaning over the door frame and smirking in a way that gives Theo a shiver that the chimera very much wants to attribute to sheer panic and not as the reason to the sweet smelling arousal that started to wiff out of him.

“On your underwear,” declares Liam.

Theo blinks for a second at the bright baby blue gaze and then looks down, to his pants. He can feel something in his groin stirr, intensifying the sickening sweet scent and the tip of his ears start getting warmer by each passing second.

The silence bit by bit granting on his nerves, the beat of his heart upticking quickly.

Either Liam is pointedly ignoring the slip up of his chemosignals or Scott still has lots of work to do with this pup of his.

"Don’t be shy,” Liam chuckles, “Mrs. Avery will be nice”

The obliviousness of the McCall Pack, perfectly packaged in a small bundle of sunshine and puppy smiles.

Theo is sure Scott couldn't more proud.

 

*

 

The only thing that he got out of it was slobbery armpits, the scent of peanut butter glued to his sinus forever and a combo breaker of a pinch in the ass and an invitation for a private dinner with Mrs Avery that Theo isn't going to take in the foreseen future.

He's not even to set a foot in that front yard for the rest of that feisty grandma's life, if possible.

There's a scowl on Liam's face that shines almost like a neon sign and makes the inside of Theo's chest flip around. The acridic scento of jealousy if filling the air and he can almost see where this is going and he very much is on board with--

"I can't believe she likes you more than me," Liam whines, "Pom-pom was supposed to like me more"

Victory seems to be rather bittersweet this time.

 

*

 

“I dare you to call Stiles and dirty talk to him”

Liam gapes at him, like the very adorable version of a human goldfish and yes, Theo knows he’s playing dirty. But Liam can’t say he didn’t see it come. Big bad chimera of hell? Ring a bell?

He’s more domestic now, he has to admit, but this is a really rare opportunity of actually having permission to ruin people’s lives.

"Are you kidding?," Liam shrieks, "He's like a brother! Like-- like a dad!"

"Good thing he's not, right?" Theo quips and smiles.

And he’s not in the business of denying himself of such small pleasures.

 

*

 

"Liam? What's happening, buddy? Everything alright? Is Scott--"

"I've-- _fuck_ ," Liam whispers, closes his eyes and swallows thickly in a way that makes Theo follow the bop of his adam's apple by instinct before shaking himself off of it. Nope, this is a dare. This is a painful task for Liam, and he should--, "I've been a bad boy"

 _Fuck_ indeed _._

"Okay? What did you do? Is everyone okay? You need--"

Stiles incessant and annoying voice cuts out at a moan that slips past Liam's plumb lips. The beta is now looking right at him, his whole face red and Theo can barely keep his evil grin in place to not telltale on how the sound almost struck him into an early death.

" _Really_ , really bad," Liam whimpers, "I-- I need a punishment"

Theo has to admit that he’s actually rather surprised and proud at how Liam seems to both confess that he fucked up by pulling this game and twist it all to make it sound as the most dirtiest words he ever said in his life.

He’s bringing Theo closer to the gates of a hell he had been avoiding for a while. Or maybe is a paradise?

There's so much silence on the other side of the line that Theo doubts for a second that maybe the line cut off. Stiles barely audible chorus of scandalized _what the fuck_ s say rather the opposite.

"I'm--," Liam whines and Theo knows it's from pure embarrassment, but his body does not. And by the splutter over the phone, Stiles either. "I’ve been so bad, I--"

" _Listen_ you little runt--!," Stiles’ voice comes both panicked and harsh and Theo hoped to never relate so hard to the spaztic human, but here he is. At the verge of yanking Liam’s phone and cutting the call.

"Yes, yes, _please_ , call me names," Liam cries and there's desperation that calls for death to take him then and there but Theo's groin translates into raw need somehow.

" **_LIAM WHAT THE FUCK--_ ** "

" _Yes_ , tell me how bad I’m behaving"

There's a click and the sound of the line going dead soon after. Liam pulls the phone away from his ear, looks at it for a second and then practically throws it over the kitchen counter in horror.

From all the things it would take for Stiles to shut up, this turns to be the successful one. Not that Theo blames him.

It’s so weird to be mentally thanking Stiles in any capacity, but he can’t avoid it.

This felt too close to daring himself into getting an early heart attack.

 

*

 

"No, Scott-- No, it was-- Yes, it was a joke. No, really, **it was**. No, I swear--"

The new call had fallen quick after Stiles had hanged up and for the first time in his short second chance at life, Theo saw Scott’s ID contact as the miracle it is supposed to be. Even more disconcerting after he thanked Stiles, from all people, for hanging a phone. But he guesses it doesn’t really care because he needed to step out of the haze of arousal that no one but himself was to blame and there’s no better way to just kill the arousal than by remembering both Scott’s concerned puppy face and Stiles disapproving one.

Well, besides a shower.

An ice cold and never ending shower.

Theo shudders but if someone asks the reason, he’s going to blame the imaginary cold shower with Scott and Stiles’ floating heads pulling faces and judging him and not the fact that Liam’s proximity is still doing things to him.

Things he needs to stop.

" _Stop laughing, you asshole! This is your fault_ ," Liam hisses between clenched teeth and kicks the chimera's shin in retaliation.

Maybe not with a kick, but the chimera appreciates the try, universe.

He can’t stop himself from wondering what would it take for Liam to finally notice that there's no sound falling from Theo’s lips.

Or, y’know, the heavy scent of arousal.

At this rate, it will be a long long while.

 

*

 

“Dare you to run straight into traffic,” Liam grumbles once the call ends.

“Wasn’t in the rules something about noy dangerously maiming each other or humans?”

“The rules stopped applying when you decided that give me a new trauma was fun”

“It’s not my fault that you played the role so well--”

From the many things Liam could have thrown at him, the phone is the last Theo expected.

 

*

 

The screen doesn’t crack when it falls flat on the floor, thankfully.

Theo still gets his nose broken, because he stepped out of the way of a clear projectile and didn’t decide to catch it.

Because fuck survival, right?

 

*

 

“I dare you to kiss my mom--”

He was clearly in the wrong. Scott’s face? _Pfft._ This is the more lust killing image he could ever evoque.

“What”

“-- for five seconds”

“Are you insane?," Theo asks, bewildered.

This has to be a joke. A really bad one. A terrible, awful one.

Liam seems completely unfazed and no, it's no joke.

Not for the first time, Theo wonders in which twisted logical way Liam's mind work.

And strangely, feel also very proud of how much his antics have been rubbing on the beta.

"I’m not kissing your mom, Liam!”

Liam huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. There's no amusement in those baby blue eyes, no. There's pure vengeance and a flicker of anger. Theo tries to remember a time when he wanted that to happen, when he was bad and badass and wasn't dared to kiss someone's mom in the name of retaliation.

"I had to dirty talk Stiles," Liam mutters, icily, "You have to kiss my mom"

"Look, I know you're angry, but--"

Liam shrugs, nodding absently once. It looks more like a petulant little kid trying to throw a tantrum than an actual honest to god adult. “Then you lose”

And Theo is such a sucker. He closes his mouth with a click and sighs in defeat.

Everything is fair in love and war, right?

 

*

 

It's the most awkward kiss he's ever given in his life.

That if he forgets that terrible incident in his seventh birthday when what was supposed to be a kiss on the cheek that ended up being Stiles kissing him in the mouth by mistake after eating cake.

The always messy eater Stiles.

Nightmares material, he can assure, same as this one.

Both of his hands are cradling Jenna's face and he's closing his eyes with too much force, but maybe if he forces himself into thinking in something else, he can convince his subconscious that this isn't happening.

Or that Jenna's grip on the kitchen knife she was using doesn't turn harder.

Or that Dr. Geyer's isn't right there, in front of them both, watching him getting closer to his own murder.

Or that Liam isn't looking too and hissing under his breath the countdown that somehow brings the chimera a little bit of peace of mind, even when the words drip with anger.

_Five._

This isn't happening.

No, he's in his room, asleep, having one of the worst nightmares of his life.

_Four._

He's asleep and will wake up at any moment and laugh at this whole thing, because this is just another bad dream and--

_Three._

He's not dreaming, Liam will get him kicked out in the stupid attempt to get revenge and--

_Two._

He's going to strangle Liam in his sleep.

And Scott's going to excuse him for it because that's the only logical course of action after this and--

_One._

When he pulls back, he takes as many steps away as possible because Jenna's grip on that knife is still pretty firm and yeah, he's a chimera, and of course, he's been stabbed and shot and even electrocuted many times but once more doesn't make it feel nice.

Jenna looks at him in silence and then turns to look at Liam, frowning.

The only thing that breaks the silence is Dr Geyer's amused voice. "Is it my turn now?"

Sleeping in his truck doesn't sound so bad right now.

 

*

 

What they get out of that is Liam getting scolded with the whole weight of the law an angry mother can muster.

Him? Only an awkward pat in the back and a warning of never doing it again. Jenna's sweet voice never sounding more like a threat to his balls as today.

Theo is sure he never felt as scared and impressed at the same time in his life before.

Yeah, sleepover at the truck is a nice plan.

 

*

 

“I dare you to dare me to kiss you”

Theo turns and looks at Liam. The beta looks still angry, his jaw almost painfully locked and his hands fisted in a tight grip at the side of his thighs. It looks like he’s about to go to war again, now with the added fixture of a blush creeping from the bridge of his nose down towards his cheeks.

It's completely adorable, in it's own equally strange and lame way. And if he’s honest, he really wants to the experience, thank you very much.

But the experience will have to wait, because there’s no way Theo will forget his grudge so easily. No puppy eyes will melt him, no sir.

"I thought it was my turn," he drawls and crosses his arms over his chest in what would seem like defensive but it’s only made to restrain himself a bit longer.

"You don't get a turn, you kissed my mom"

And there, the flawless Dunbar's logistic because of losing.

Before he can stop himself, Theo's bursting into a fit of laughter.

Before he can stop Liam, there's a fist in his nose.

 

*

 

The third wasn't the lucky one, it’s the fourth.

Or whichever number of wrestling and roughing around this is.

His nose is still stitching back together and he’s ready to throw a biting remark at the beta when Liam clashes their mouths together with almost feral force. Words? What even are those? And who even needs them right now?

Liam bites his lower lip hard enough to make it bleed a bit, but it's soon eased by a swipe of tongue exactly how he would have expected it to happen. If, you know, he had daydreamed about this.

Which he did, but that’s not the point.

The kiss soon turns from desperate and almost primal to a languid drag of mouths and tongues, soft sighs in between and Liam's hands fisting in the front of his shirt as if hanging for dear life.

Theo pulls away, pressing their foreheads together, partially because his nose is stitching back together and he needs to breath with his mouth but also because the quick turn of pages moved the world under his feet and he needs to find purchase somehow.

Liam’s sitting over his lap, drowning him in his scent and the amount of ecstatic chemosignal drowning the room. The beta's eyes are closed and he's biting his lower lip in a clear attack to Theo's sanity.

Or whatever is left of it by now.

“Kiss me again,” Liam mumbles and chases Theo’s lips.

And not even that can stop him from teasing the puppy.

Theo stretches back, making the beta miss his cue and smiles mischievously at him. “I’d have thought that you’d taste like Corey’s feet”

Liam growls and Theo smirks, because in some twisted way riling the puppy up makes him feel happy. That and being kissed again, clearly. Harsh and demanding, just as before, and then falling down into a soft cadence of them testing more than each other's nerves.

“You didn’t say you dare me,” Theo breathes out the next time he manages to break away and press their foreheads together.

“I’m not playing anymore,” Liam replies easily and tries to catch his lips once more.

And isn’t that the biggest lie the righteous beta could have said? There’s a dare, clear than ever.

 _Dare you to tell me you want me too_.

The chimera leans in but doesn’t connect their lips together yet. Most like hover at a not really safe distance, a soft yet amused smile painting his features. Liam clearly has no patience left, because he kills the distance almost without remorse. Theo growls but it lacks of any threat or warning, kisses back with the same need, little nibbles and harsher bites sneaking in between.

When they pull apart again, it’s not like the first time.

Their foreheads are pressed together but Liam’s eyes are wide open and fixed just on him. Their noses bump with each breath at first and then it’s more deliberated, almost like playful. Theo doesn’t know exactly what changed until he does and finds it a little bit hard to breath.

Now everything he wanted is close to reach.

“It’s your turn,” Liam mumbles, his hands roaming from the middle of his chest to the back of his neck and Theo can’t help but melt a bit under the touch.

“I’m not playing either,” he replies hoarsely, moving his head slightly to a side, pushing towards the touch. This time is him the one who clings to dear life at the beta’s clothes.

“Good,” he can hear the smile in Liam’s voice right before he gets a soft peck on the lips. “Because you were losing anyways”

One big part of Theo's brain screams that this is the moment when he usually gets to punch the living lights out of the little beta, break each other’s nose for who knows how many times in a row.

Usually.

This time he growls playfully and dives in for a new kiss, this time with Liam’s giggles in between mixed with his own.

From now on, they’ll settle with kissing each other stupid.

  
*

 

Hours later find Theo sprawled on the floor, with a new broken nose and half beta puppy draped over his chest.

Old habits die hard, it seems.


End file.
